We have had tremendous response to our feature on the canaller WILLIAM C. WARREN which appeared in the November issue. We had always considered the WARREN to be our "favourite" canal steamer and, indeed, Ye Ed. remembers with considerable pleasure the number of times he watched this handsome boat as she made her way up and down the Welland Canal. Little did we realize that so many of our readers who knew the WARREN felt the same way. This is pure nostalgia at its heartfelt best!

One of our readers wrote as follows: " To my eye, she was always the best-looking of the postwar 'Eastern' fleet. The way her cargo booms were angled, fore and aft shallow, midship deep, was unique. She was always much cleaner than the Upper Lakes canallers. I cannot remember the number of times that I have thrown a heaving line down to her deck to pull a mooring line up to the lock wall, or taken a line from a mate as she entered Lock One downbound, or put up the bridges at Locks One and Eight for her to pass underneath."

Another member has written to say that his father was chief engineer on the WARREN for her entire time with the Beaconsfield fleet. He goes on to say that, when she sailed from Collingwood in the autumn of 1948 after being repaired from her grounding, she was painted in the colours of the Mohawk Navigation Company Ltd., another of the fleets managed by Robert A. Campbell of Montreal. He states that the new stack was placed on WARREN at Portsmouth during the winter of 1948-49 and that it was at this time that she was painted in Beaconsfield colours. He should know, because he was aboard her as she fitted out for the 1949 season. Interestingly enough, he mentions that her crew always referred to the WARREN as "the Jersey Cow", presumably because of her colours whilst in Beaconsfield service.

We are always pleased when one of our articles stimulates such a response. It is good to know that others think of some of the old steamboats in the same manner as do we.

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